Ancient Egyptian festivals centred on procession by land and river, and were
celebrated on particular days or series of days in the official year. The official
year (365 days) was just short of the solar year (the time the earth takes to
go around the sun, 365 1/4 days); as a result, the official year gradually moved
back, with the official 'winter' months and their festivals falling into the
summer. There seems to be no attempt to move the festivals, even those relating
to agricultural events in the solar
year such as flood, or the low-river sowing season. Such fixed reference to
the official year demonstrates the remarkable power of the centralised kingship,
in determining the timing of festivals that would have been celebrated by large
numbers across the country. The role of festivals in daily life is indicated
by the names of months; these derive
from names of festivals, often with a prefix 'Paen-' meaning 'the (festival/month)
of', and were kept in use even after the conversion of Egypt to Christianity
in the early centuries AD.

The evidence for festivals is uneven; there are more inscriptions recording
funerary and royal festivals, and far more evidence from Thebes than from the
rest of Egypt. One of the most important sources is the hieroglyphic inscription
recording a great festival list in the temple for Ramesses
III at Medinet Habu.

Hieroglyphic inscriptions on Old Kingdom tomb-chapel elements, particularly
the architrave, include lists of important festivals with an emphasis on the
beginning of the year, the late summer flood:

There are no manuscripts of the period with information on the procedures followed
in any of these festivals during the Old Kingdom (about 2686-2181 BC)
.

The following list gives the festivals noted by Siegfried Schott in his study
of festival dates, in the order they occurred in the Egyptian year. Each month
is introduced by its number in the sequence of 12 months in the Egyptian calendar,
with the ancient Egyptian name of the month in an early New Kingdom list, the
late New Kingdom month name, its early medieval equivalent in Coptic (Christian)
Egypt, and the rough equivalent in the modern calendar in the ideal official
year when it matched more or less the solar year (though the official year moved
out of step with the solar year, as explained above). Each month had 30 days,
and the festivals are listed in sequence; some festivals moved or grew over
time, and others are known only from one period. Each year, five days were added
to the 12 months of 30 days to bring the total to 365, as close as integrally
possible to the 365 1/4 days of the solar year; each 'extra' day was celebrated
as the birthday of a particular deity.

In this list after Schott, the great variations across time and place are overlooked
in order to produce a linear calendar of festivals; in referring to each festival,
the following questions should always be asked, even if the sources can rarely
provide detailed answers:

Is the festival local or national?

Was the festival celebrated in all periods or only in some, and if the latter,
which periods?

Is the festival a secluded ceremony within a temple, or does it involve
a broader landscape and a greater number of participants?

Is the festival fixed to a day, or to a moveable event such as a phase of
the moon?

In addition to the seasonal festivals, there would have been festivals specific
to each reign, such as the accession day of the reigning king.

Season of Flood

Month 1 (1st month of 12 in year)

Tekh = Thoth = Coptic Thout (approximately August, ideally)

day 1 New Year - Opening of the Year - birthday of Ra-Horakhty (the sun-god)

day 15 offerings to Hapy and Amun
to secure a good flood (known from Dynasty 19 rock inscriptions at Gebel el-Silsila)

day 17 eve of the Wag festival

day 18 Wag festival

day 19 Wag and Thoth festival, according to the great festival list in the
temple for Ramesses III at Medinet
Habu

day 20 Tekh (drunkenness)

day 22 Great Procession (of Osiris)

Month 2 (2nd month of 12 in year)

Menkhet = Panipet = Coptic Paopi (approximately September, ideally)

day 15 start of Ipet festival as 11-day festivities for Amun in Luxor, according
to the festival list of Thutmose III
at Elephantine

day 19 start of Ipet festival as 27-day festivities for Amun
in Luxor, according to the record of good deeds of Ramesses III (Papyrus Harris
I), and great festival list in the temple for Ramesses
III at Medinet Habu

Note: the river procession and offerings at the Ipet festival are depicted
on the walls of the great colonnade of the temple of Amun at Luxor

day 18 local Elephantine festival of Khnum
and Anuqet, according to the festival list of Thutmose
III at Elephantine

day 27 start of 2-day local festival of Mont, according to the late Middle Kingdom (about 2025-1700 BC) accounts papyrus Boulaq 18 (referring to it as 'festival of Mont'; this
may be not an annual festival, but one ceremony, perhaps at the consecration
of a shrine)

day 28 local Elephantine festival of Satet and Anuqet, according to the festival
list of Thutmose III at Elephantine

day not specified: Menkhet ('Cloth') festival, according to late Middle Kingdom
accounts papyrus listing singers and dancers UC
32191

Month 3 (3rd month of 12 in year)

Hathor = Coptic Athor (approximately October, ideally)

day 9 festival for Amun, according to the festival list of Thutmose
III at Elephantine

day 30 local Elephantine festival of Anuqet, according to the festival list
of Thutmose III at Elephantine

Month 4 (4th month of 12 in year)

Nehebkau = Kaherka = Coptic Khoiak (approximately November, ideally)

day 1 festival for Hathor, according to the great festival list in the temple
for Ramesses III at Medinet Habu

day 18 start of the Khoiak ceremonies: main events
of this festival, centred on the Osiris myth, are

day 22 Ploughing the Earth

day 26 Sokar festival

day 30 raising the Djed-pillar

Season of Sowing

Month 1 (5th month of 12 in year)

Shefbedet = Ta-aabet = Coptic Tobi (approximately December, ideally)

day 1 festival of Nehebkau (called the Beginning of Eternity in an inscription
for king Sety I at Nauri)

day 20 sailing of Wadjyt, according to an inscription for king Thutmose
III at the temple of Mut, Karnak

day 29 sailing of Bast, according to an inscription for king Thutmose
III at the temple of Mut, Karnak

day 29 festival of Raising the Willow, according to the great festival list
in the temple for Ramesses III at
Medinet Habu

day 30 sailing of Shesmet, according to an inscription for king Thutmose
III at the temple of Mut, Karnak

according to a late New Kingdom Turin papyrus, the festival is the sailing
of Mut lady of Isheru

Month 2 (6th month of 12 in year)

day 30 key date in a festival spanning several days, identified sometimes as
'Amun-in-the-festival-of-raising-heaven', and in some sources the day of bringing
branches of the ished-tree (sacred tree of the sun-god at Iunu) and culminating
on the next day, the first of the next month, with the ceremony of filling the
sacred eye in Iunu; this is the halfway point of the year, ideal 'midwinter'

Month 3 (7th month of 12 in year)

day 1 festival of Ptah (perhaps local to Thebes?), according to the journal
for work on the king's tomb; day of return of the image of the deity in the
festival 'Amun-in-the-festival-of-raising-heaven'

day 21 festival of king Amenhotep I in the valley (originally local to Thebes?
month name indicates broader observation later?)

day 29 start (?) of 4-day festival of king Amenhotep I for the Deir el-Medina
workforce

Month 4 (8th month of 12 in year)

(Paen)renenutet = Coptic Pharmouthi (approximately March, ideally)

day 4 festival of Bast, also recorded as the day of chewing onions for Bast

day 5 appearance of Bast in her boat, according to a Dynasty 26 statue (Louvre
A88)

day 25 harvest offering to Renenutet, according to a depiction in Theban Tomb-chapel
38

day 27 granary offering to Renenutet, according to a depiction in Theban tomb-chapel
48

Season of Summer

Month 1 (9th month of 12 in year)

(Paen)khons = Coptic Pakhon (approximately April, ideally)

day 1 festival of Renenutet, also identified as the birthday of Nepri (personification
of grain)

day 10 adoration of Anubis

day 11 festival of Min, a 4-day festival at
the New Moon according to the great festival list in the temple for Ramesses
III at Medinet Habu

Month 2 (10th month of 12 in year)

Khentkhety = Paeninet = Coptic Paoni (approximately May, ideally)

Festival of the Valley celebrated at the New Moon in this month; this was the
greatest festival of the Theban necropolis, when the image of Amun of Karnak
on the east bank at Thebes was brought to the temples for the cult of individual
kings on the west bank - a distinctive feature of this festival was the presentation
of great quantities of flowers - this would have been a time for each family
to feast with their dead, and the architecture and decoration of tomb-chapels
at Thebes reflect such festive banquets

Month 3 (11th month of 12 in year)

Ipet-hemet = Ipip = Coptic Epip (approximately June, ideally)

day 15 offerings to Hapy and Amun to secure a good flood (known from Dynasty
19 rock inscriptions at Gebel el-Silsila)

day 30 eve of the Hathor festival at Thebes, according to stela for king Thutmose
III, Cairo CG 34013